Downtown Mount Clemens offers free parking

People coming into Mount Clemens to visit retailers, bars and restaurants will have free parking after 6 p.m. and on weekends through the end of the year, thanks to a new plan by the city’s Downtown Development Authority. (Macomb Daily staff photo by Ray J. Skowronek)

Parking in downtown Mount Clemens will be free after 6 p.m. on weekdays and all day and night on weekends through the end of the year following approval of an agreement between city officials and the Downtown Development Authority.

The Mount Clemens City Commission on Monday approved a the agreement that calls for the DDA to subsidize weekend parking fees for the Roskopp lot — one of the city’s largest parking lots located behind the former Emerald Theatre — until Dec. 31.

A spokeswoman for the DDA said the plan will give downtown users a more user-friendly experience.

“We’re trying to assist the downtown businesses with shopping and celebrating for the holiday season,” said DDA representative Michelle Weiss. “We thought we’d step to the plate and help the businesses.”

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The agreement calls for the DDA to pay the city $1,500 per month for October, November and December, or a total of $4,500. The DDA is made up of restaurants, shops and other businesses in the city’s downtown section.

Officials said with the closure of the Emerald Theater this past summer, evening and weekend demand for parking at the Roskopp lot has declined. The city has also terminated its contract with a firm hired to collect fees at the lot on weekend nights. Numerous business owners have complained about the rudeness of the past company’s workers.

DDA officials hope offering free parking will result in more people coming into the downtown to shop or hold Christmas parties at the area’s bars and restaurants.

“I like it because it shows a commitment by the DDA to stimulate some commerce downtown,” said Commissioner Joe Rheker.

Although free parking is an attractive marketing tool, Mount Clemens still needs to pay for a past bond issue that financed improvements to the parking system. Without the parking fees, the city would have no way to pay those costs, so the DDA came up with a plan to make up the difference.

Even with the fees in place, the reduction in parking lot users due to the closure of the Emerald left the city having to make up the difference in recent months, according to Mayor Barb Dempsey.

“We subsidized $47 last month and it’s going to be $250 this month,” Dempsey said.

Meanwhile, the city and the DDA are working on additional changes in the parking system including a plan to allow motorists to use their cell phones to pay for parking meters. Details on that plan are expected to be finalized soon.

For more information, visit www.downtownmountclemens.com or call 586-469-4168.